It’s over, move on.

It’s over, move on.

January is the strangest month.  It starts in holiday mode.  There is absolutely no expectation to do anything remotely productive, unless it is for personal gain, like indulging in a hobby.   And as the middle month of summer, it is – most of the time – too hot to want to do anything anyway.   I can’t cope in the heat, especially when it goes over 30°C like it did this year.  That may not be hot to some people, but it is to me.

All of this inactivity fights with what the new year brings, and that is a fresh start and a clean slate.  A determination to do things differently and for the umpteenth time around the sun, I am going to get things ‘right’.  I am going to be this super charged new version of me, and it will be amazing.  January is paved with good intentions, but a lot of not a lot as well.

Well now is where the rubber hits the road…  we are starting on week five of this no longer new year.  January is about to hand over to February and I need to wake up and stop looking for the new me in the heat, but just find what was once normal and carry on with a trusted routine going forward into a month that while still warm doesn’t carry a sting.  One 12^th of the year has gone, and I haven’t been anywhere near as productive as my good intentions and resolutions would have me.  I just need to put my head down and my butt up and do what I do well – just moving forward, one foot at a time. Getting stuff done.

And in the meantime, the garden grows.  It is the most productive time.  It is when the cucumbers and zucchini start to go crazy.  Tomatoes put on their first blushes like young things at their first disco, being asked to dance by the cutest boy in town.  The watering needs are at their highest with even the most deep rooted and well mulched plants gasping for a drop in the middle of the day.  And weeds surreptitiously sneak in with nothing good on their mind, with pest and disease, lurking about, waiting for an opportunity to do their worst.

At this time of year crops are processed out of need, not want and moments after they are sealed away in jars, the bench overflows again as a new harvest takes its place.   The larder for the coming cooler months is being stocked with familiar old favs, familiar because the recipe to use a kilo of cucumbers is a better use of time than several new and potentially exciting new possibilities that only use a small portion of the crops on the bench.

The passing of time is a bit of a wake-up call.  Things feel different. Getting out of bed to mornings days that don’t instantly feel too hot, the grassy path to the garden is damp with heavy dew still to be burnt off by the slowly building heat of the day.  Looking around, the garden itself feels tired, the edges have been worn down by the constant battle with the heat.  There has been an imperceptible shift. A newness is coming.

February is like a second chance for a new start.  There is still plenty of time to sow and reap.  Many of the summer loving crops can be restarted now and will go on to lead a happy and healthy existence out of the burning heat and go on to give a bountiful harvest while their earlier cousins fade in exhaustion.

The plans and resolutions that already feel cast aside can be picked up and reapplied.  The supercharged new me with all the accompanying good intentions can have a renewed attempt, unharried by the heat and lethargy that comes bound to January. Look out world, here comes a blur of productivity… and it will all start with a packet of seeds.  I think maybe some cucumbers.

Come again soon – things are about to change…  hopefully.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)